Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/363

 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 351

Hymn 633. The sands of time are sinking. ANNE Ross COUSIN.

Published in The Christian Treasury for 1857, and gave a title to her volume, Immanucrs Land, and other pieces, a collection of 107 hymns and poems, published in 1876.

The author of this hymn, who was the only daughter of Dr. Cundcll, of Leith,was born in 1824, and married a Free Church minister in Melrose. O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head, is another of her hymns.

When Samuel Rutherford was dying he was asked, What think ye now of Christ ? He replied, I shall live and adore Him. Glory, glory to my Creator and Redeemer for ever. Glory shineth in Immanuel s land. The Scotch saint s words are woven into the fabric of Mrs. Cousin s nineteen stanzas. He writes to John Gordon in 1637, My worthy and dear brother, misspend not your short sand-glass which runneth very fast ; seek your Lord in time. He told the Presbyterians of Ireland, suffering much for conscience sake in 1638, Sure I am that He (Christ) is the far best half of heaven, yea, He is all heaven, and more than all heaven ; and my testimony of Him is, that ten lives of black sorrow, ten deaths, ten hells of pain, ten furnaces of brimstone, and all exquisite torments were too little for Christ, if our suffering could be a hire to buy Him. Two of his biographers record that his last words were, Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel s land. He died at St. Andrews on March 30, i66i,and was buried there. Rutherford was born about 1600. His ministry at Anwoth (1627-36), near Kirk cudbright, was followed by banishment to Aberdeen in 1636. He was able to return after eighteen months, but in 1639 he became Principal of New College, St. Andrews, which was his home till his death. Dean Stanley calls him The true saint of the Covenant.

��Hymn 634. Come, let us join with one accord. CHARLES WKSLEY (i).

Hymns for Children, 1763; Works, vi. 430. For the Lord s Day.

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